Sunshine
by queenchesh
Summary: Artemis gets a call that changes everything. Artemis/Cameron. Dark themes.


Sunshine

 _I'll always love you and make you happy_  
 _If you will only say the same_  
 _But if you leave me to love another,_  
 _You'll regret it all one day_

by Copeland

Artemis was the girl of summer. She honed her sunlight bright hair and full pink lips. Her skin like the color of clay, except it was she that molded the universe. She was an explosion. Artemis was full of forgiveness and kisses and tears and a bleeding heart that would turn cold when emotions failed her.

Cameron was the boy of winter. He was placid; a Jack Frost look-a-like, skinny, insignificant boy that got dry throat and bit the bend of his finger when words failed him. He's a freak, a mistake in genes with ice cracking against his skin until he bleeds. His heart was warm, though caged by jagged icicles in his ribcage.

The story of the ages said that she melted the chill in his bones and he froze her valiant, red heart.

There was something so satisfying about a couple that was so absolutely, perfectly, destroying each other on the breaking point.

Cameron was in a constant struggle of hit-or-miss. Hit being to do something right, just as miss translated to messing up his relationship with Artemis. Today would be a surprise.

"I'm not going to stay here and save you." He told her as she cried. Her engagement ring on the kitchen counter next to her nail polish bottles.

It was a hot California day, and she'd opened the bay windows to let the air in. Artemis just knew things like that, where the breeze was coming from, how the air the stifling heat and dust out of the house. She was better at domestic relationships than he was. The again, maybe not.

Artemis had her cellphone pressed against her cheek, but there was no one on the other line. She had just gotten the call. Wally was dead, freak accident, and here she was with her other boyfriend, feeling just horrible about herself. Cameron felt cheated.

Couldn't that asshole dodge a fucking bullet?

His jaw locked when he realized he had voiced what he had be thinking and Artemis looked at him, just destroyed and he felt better. Although he loved her, he couldn't stand how everything she did was just so perfect, perfect, but everything was shit for him.

"I'm not going to stay here and save you." She pushed her hair back, phone still in hand. Still not looking at him. Still crying. Fuck he couldn't take this anymore. They had just fucked and they had been talking about ordering pizza.

As much as he wanted to be understanding—as much as he wanted to care—he didn't. He couldn't. Death to his competition, the girl was his now, and so on . . . but she was so fucking _sad._ And she told him she loved him. In that way when she _meant_ it. Smiling and messy hair and undone, "I love you." And he had kissed her, tasting longing and the sun.

"M'gann's coming to pick me up. I have to . . . I have somewhere else to be." She said, wiping her cheeks, the tears coming slower and slower as she sobered.

"Yeah, well, you might want to shower before you hug any mourners. I think we almost broke the couch."

He then, stomped back upstairs, almost tripping over her bag that she had dropped there not an hour ago. His jaw clenched. This was supposed to be an all weekend trip, this was supposed to be them. He was supposed to convince her not to get married.

She had shown up toying with the ring, she had not even put it on yet. "He was so understanding with it, 'take your time' he said and I'm taking my time, trying to come up with an answer." She was undecided, yes or no, Wally or Cameron, she swore she was his for the night if they promised not to talk about it. When her knees touched the ground, he had forgotten everything but her name.

Something large and heavy connected with the back of his head. As usual her aim was perfect, but finally her fire was back. "You fuckin' tool!" she screamed and charged him, she socked his jaw, hard, and he felt his teeth sing. "You fuck, you son of a—he just fuckin' died! Do you have anything in you at all?" She wasn't crying, at least.

Cameron leered at her. "Obviously not. But now that he's out of the way, we can keep up this little tryst in peace. No more late night checkups, no more covering for missions." His thumb hooked into the waistband of her underwear and she smacked his hand away.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Artemis smacked him, his other cheek and screamed in his ear. "You're disgusting." She stomped back around the room, pulling on her jeans, her tank, her boots. "You're fuckin' sick."

Cameron felt his jaw. "And you love it, babe, you know you do."

"We're done." She stomped over, grabbed her bag and made a point to hit him with it. "Done!" She emphasized and retreated back to the kitchen and out the screen door. He heard a car pull up in front and the sounds of a car door slamming, voices.

M'gann was here, her eccentric best friend who knew about the whole affair and had been trying to get Artemis to leave him for months. Still, she would have never ever, ever told Wally what was going on. In fact, Cameron was sure that she was the reason they didn't get caught last week. Cameron had started leaving clothes at their apartment. Boxers under the pillow, jeans in the closet, tee shirt under the bed.

Artemis, apparently, cleaned up very well when he left.

He strolled to the front of the house, watching Artemis toss her bags into the backseat and get into the front, phone in hand, sunglasses on, not talking to M'gann who had gotten out of the car to ask what was wrong. Apparently, M'gann was not warranted the pleasure of seeing Artemis cry.

"Hey, Tiger, you forgot this." He held up the ring. Artemis didn't look at him. She rolled up her car window, face in hand, _not looking._

"Give me that." M'gann held out her palm to him, glaring and her red lips pursed into a scowl.

Cameron stood in the door frame, arms cross over his chest, naked except for his boxers and his hair tossed in every direction. He could still feel Artemis against his skin. He just knew M'gann could see what they had been doing prior to the phone call. The two minutes and forty-five seconds where everything had changed.

He tossed the ring at her and she caught it and stepped away from him; eyes trained as if he might attack before she turned to get into the driver's side.

"I'll bet you're glad you won't be seeing me anymore, huh?" He asked. M'gann said nothing, but slammed her door hard, she dropped the ring into the cup holder between them and Artemis picked it up as they sped away, back to wherever two guilty mourners needed to be.

Cameron watched them go and refused to feel bad about it. His conscience was clean. He had even told Wally that he had been banging his girlfriend for almost two years now, but in the heat of battle, Wally had assumed that Cameron had be lying. Artemis smacked him in the ear for that one. Then bit his neck afterwards which led to his breakup with the girl he had been seeing.

It wasn't fair. She got everything good and pretty in this world but Cameron's life was a walking horror show.

Reconciling with her father and sister, babysitting her niece, college, superhero, perfect fiancé and a little bit of wrong on the side? Her life was a goddamn fairytale and he, for one, was sick of it. Sicker still of being a part of it.

There was still apart of him that wondered when she would realize that she was wearing Wally's ring—the diamond had broken his skin when she punched—and the ring in her palm was the one Cameron wanted to give to her.

He closed the door, locked it, and decided that he wanted to sleep for the next two hundred years.

...

 **So, this is me coping with finals and having just gotten back from the Cellabration a few days ago. Frank Iero played this song at his concert, and my mom always sang the shorter version to me. I like it. Even to want the lyrics tattooed.**

 **Anyway, first new story in a long time. We like? I might write more to get some practice with bad romances. And this is way, way darker than my story "Alice the Tiger" which I WILL be updating soon. I just lost the drive to write for a year and a half. I like the darker Cameron, and the not-so-innocent Artemis. Why do I like these stories? Why do I write them? No clue, I just do.  
**

 **Drop me a line.**


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